–

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf

–

Hello Friends & Farm-ily,

–

We hope this newsletter finds you all well!  We can hardly believe how quickly time is flying by… June is already here which means we’re a little less than 3 weeks away from the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year!)

–

Did you get a chance to read the email newsletter, “Bringing Home the Bounty (Tips for CSA Success!)? This is a great resource put together by your farmers! It’s full of helpful tips for members who are new to CSA and even a great refresher for those who have been CSA-ers for a while now! If anything, reading through this should encourage you and make you feel great about the choice to sign up for CSA and be a part of your local farm! Hurray for veggies!

–

–

Some pictures shared by YOU (our members).  We love seeing these little glimpses and moments…

–

A couple of folks asked for a link to the BioBags we use for bagged greens. Here it is!    I also found a helpful blog post about Storing Real Food and suggestions for reusable containers – Inside My Fridge – Best Reusable Containers For Storing Real Food As we noted in the Bringing Home the Bounty newsletter a big part of CSA success is taking the time to properly store your veggies in the fridge. We all know the 24 hour wilt too well when veggies aren’t stored in a sealed container etc in the fridge. All the veggies are harvested in less than 24 hours which means they are FRESH AS CAN BE! Most veggies at the grocery store are 3 weeks old by the time it hits the shelves. So, with some good storage habits you will reap all the benefits of high quality, extra fresh produce!

–

As your CSA farmers, throughout the 28-week season we provide you with the most nutrient rich, organic, thoughtfully-grown, fresh picked & seasonal produce!   We strive to grow produce according to the seasons and to the best of our abilities.  To introduce you to new varieties of veggies & include delicious ways to prepare them!  To encourage you to enjoy your time in the kitchen, be playful and to have fun.  Each week that you pick up your bounty we pass the torch to you.  We’re a part of each others food journey and we look forward to hearing week to week about what you’re cooking, what was eaten first and what you really enjoyed.

–

–

Happy peppers being planted out in the field a few weeks ago, the best stand of snap peas we’ve ever had and Mr. G..

–

Thank you to everyone who has shared bits and pieces of their CSA journey that started almost a month (check out some of the pictures here). We’ve been so inspired by what members have been posting the past week in the Member’s Facebook Page.  Throughout the Members Page the conversation and experience continues well after the produce leaves the farm and the visual component really hits it home for us. The interaction and shared experience validates all the long hours and hard work we do. It shows that its worthwhile and the goals of the farm are being met because the food is being utilized and thoroughly enjoyed.

–

This part of the experience is important to us… because beyond the delicious produce our CSA aims to improve our CSA members quality of life! We want to play a part in ensuring that they can live long, healthy lives and be productive members of society.  This interaction helps us to see that our goals are making a difference in our community. And it is you our members who are making the upfront investment for the betterment of us all! Pretty amazing stuff!  (Here’s a little blog post about why one of our members signed up this season)

–

–

Some moody Spring skies at golden hour… 

–

And now for some on the farm updates! The ol’ to do list is getting long (as it does this time of the year). The planting list is ever growing and we have been chiseling away almost everyday to get ground prepared, seeded, planted etc. We’ve made some big pushes though and have already planted two successions of sweet corn, lettuce, fennel, beets, radicchio, broccoli, cauliflower to name a few…. Last week we planted all our sweet potato – all 5,000 slips were planted by hand! Hurrah! That’s a big one to check off the list. Bring on the sweet potato!

–  

We also got out all our early Turban Garlic varieties over the weekend (close to 2,000 bulbs!)  They’ve been really nice to grow the last few years as they have a head start on growth before the annual garlic rust (fungal disease) hits in May. These are harvested in late May/early June whereas the later varietals are harvested mid-June.  They are currently drying down in the barn and ‘curing’.  The base of each leaf on the plant represents one layer of skin around the bulb. These layers of skin mitigate moisture loss inside the bulb and contribute to the bulb’s shelf life.  Keeping them in a well ventilated dry place with a fan helps to “cure” (dry down) the garlic and increase storability.

–

Over the weekend we got the first round of melons in the ground (yahoo!).  Planting is a big to do for us this time of the year… we’re already planting out some early fall and even Winter crops!   Over the course of this week, in between harvests, irrigation, weeding and prepping ground for planting etc we’ll transplant the second round of Summer Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Leeks, Brussel Sprouts, Kalettes, Celery, Celeriac, Basil and another succession of Broccoli. As I write it down, I wonder… can it be done?! We’ll just keep chipping away at the list and the plans and take on one project at a time.   There is so much to look forward to.. It won’t be long now until the bounty of summer starts rolling in (especially in the months of late July and August!)

–

–

Some stormy skies came through a few weeks ago and nearly blew some crops over.. we love nature but wind and large gusts… they are a hard one to stomach on the farm!

–

It’s been a bit of a variable Spring (weather wise).. I keep saying it’s the most spring-like spring we’ve had in a while!  Some weeks it’s been real hot and balmy and others we get an inch of rain in just a few days with intermittent storms and deep dark clouds!  About a month ago now a pretty epic storm rolled through the farm one evening and just about blew us over.  We had just planted out all our field tomatoes and saw that cloud (pictured above) rolling towards us with no warning!  We shut down the propagation house and felt the wind shift.  As we wondered, is there anything we need to get or hide away etc we looked out at the landscape fabric where the tomatoes were and saw that it started to pull up with the insane gusts.  We ran out there (in sneakers!) and firmly planted ourselves on the mat so it wouldn’t come up completely and roll over all the newly planted babies.  It was about 20 minutes before the wind died down but it dropped a half inch on us in that short amount of time.  Just the two of us laying and holding the mat down to keep it from barreling across the field.  It made for a pretty muddy and soggy mess but we were able to throw down a bunch of sandbags and stabilize things until we could fix it all the next morning.  Miraculously we only lost a few plants and still had some replacements.  In the moment though you wonder how you got there.. hah!  #theonlywayoutisthrough

–

Everything is growing fast with the warmer weather (which = warmer soils and the roots and plants grow fast!) Starting this week we’ll be trellising the tomatoes in the field which is always a sure fire sign of summertime. The first round of squash and zucchini are throwing out their first flowers which means fruit are not far behind. The Strawberries are rolling in a few weeks earlier than last year… We’re also already turning over a few empty beds here and there with some of the Spring crops that were included in the first few shares. The longer we do this the faster time seems to fly by and all we can do is hold on for the ride.

–

Rob and Krystle, our small but mighty farm crew, have been helping us keep the pace during our two harvest days! We’ve been truly lucking out with the weather on for harvest. It’s been cool and cloudy in the mornings which makes the harvest steady and enjoyable! That way we can get all those precious greens out of the field before the sun makes things hot! Everything gets washed and chilled quickly and straight into the cooler where it waits to be enjoyed by you.

–

–

Nice looking Spring crops, a scape artist and the strawberries came a few weeks early for us this year!

–

Brian and I have been hustling and bustling the other 5 days of the week maintaining the farm, weeding, mowing, watering, taking care of the propagation house and the babies, prepping soil, spreading fertilizer, trellising… you name it!   We are so thankful for our systems as we’d truly be lost with out them. And as Brian always says that cooking and eating isn’t something you do after all the other needs of the day are met it is something that you do so you can meet the needs of the day. She taught me that eating well is a matter of priorities. Without eating 3 square meals a day from the farm we wouldn’t be able to do this work as well as we do. It nourishes us in a way that is incomparable to anything else and we love it. Perhaps the greatest seal of approval from your farmers is that they love to eat and cook with the food that they grow. Eating well is a priority for us and growing amazing food for our community is the fuel for that fire.

–

After a month of harvesting veggies our energy is high and we’re excited for the season ahead.  In the first month we’ve harvested over 15,000lbs of veggies for 150 households (520 individuals!) and we’re just getting started.  We hope you all enjoy this week’s goodies! #eatwell #bewell

–

–

To stay updated and in touch with our daily happenings on the farm follow us on Instagram & Facebook!  And to learn a little bit more about us through the years check out The Farmer to Farmer Podcast episodes here:

http://www.farmertofarmerpodcast.com/episodes/powers

http://www.farmertofarmerpodcast.com/episodes/workinghands

–

As we talked about during the Farmer to Farmer podcast a few years we continue to actively say YES to things unrelated to the farm… which isn’t always easy (especially as we enter the REALLY  busy part of the season) as a farmer but it’s necessary in order to live a full and balanced life!  Farmer Brian even took up a new hobby (climbing) this Spring which has stimulated whole other synapses totally unrelated to farming #forthewin #keepthetractorrunning  So here’s to eating well and being well!  Enjoy this week’s bounty!

–

With kind regards,

–

your farmers

–

Jess & Brian

–

dirty hands, clean hearts

–